


caution & crisis

by autisticlalna (mathonwys)



Series: casting a shadow (Shadow People AU) [7]
Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: (in chapter 3), Bastardly Actions, Body Horror, Brief mentions of injury, Dimensional Travel, Gen, Grian gets trapped in another dimenson but it's probably fine, Murmur uses ASL, Shadow People AU, discussion of isolation & abandonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-23 00:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21310780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mathonwys/pseuds/autisticlalna
Summary: * Grian has made the advancement [Into The Abyss]Grian is pretty sure his shadow is the absolute worst. Then it turns out his shadow is the latest to develop a special power, and in a bid to stop Jigsaw from causing havoc on the server he does something very, very stupid and discovers something none of the other hermits had thought possible. Now trapped in another dimension, he has to try and find his way out... or hope that his friends back in the Overworld are able to get his shadow to cooperate.(written for the Shadow People AU by mine-sara-sp on tumblr!)
Series: casting a shadow (Shadow People AU) [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1522271
Comments: 2
Kudos: 85





	1. entrance

**Author's Note:**

> back at it again! [does a sick kickflip] [falls down]
> 
> so as usual, sara had a downright AMAZING idea in one of her dreams, and after she told it to me it just... kinda got stuck in my head? and i was on break after writing the last couple fics, but the idea kinda just kept hanging out in the background until i finally woke up one day like "you know what? i wanna write this."
> 
> so i told sara, we hashed out the details, she provided some AMAZING concept art that you can find in the "shadow people au" tag on tumblr or on her blog, and next thing i know ive written 20 pages in 2 days. woo!
> 
> Grian's my favourite hermit so i hope i did him justice ^^; i also absolutely Loathe his shadow which... made writing this rather fun. Jigsaw's characterization is inspired the fanfics by iamsolarflare/betweenlands & iskall-ium on tumblr, as well as how sara has characterized him in her ask responses, although thanks to plot reasons he's not quite as horrible as he'd normally be. which is honestly for the best.

Grian was sick and tired of this.

He wasn’t the only one on the server with a dangerous shadow: he’d personally been on the receiving end of the worst Joe’s could do, and pretty much every hermit had been on the wrong end of Biffa’s shadow’s sword by now. But... they never kidnapped his friends and tortured them to laugh about it. Those shadows didn’t relish in the absolute misery they could inflict on everyone for no reason other than they could. They didn’t torment the people close to their summoners just to see the looks on their faces.

Grian hated it. He hated how he’d put so much trust in his shadow at first, and he hated how he hadn’t realized his mistake until it was too late. He hated how his friends flinched if he approached them without warning in anything other than bright light, hated how so many of his behaviours were warped and twisted into mocking cruelty, hated how he couldn’t even build fun traps anymore without worrying about how they could be made lethal, hated all the reminders around him of what his shadow had done.

The other hermits wanted to know why he kept summoning it. Too many times Jigsaw had escaped, too many times someone had been hurt. He always had a flimsy excuse when asked (“I wanted another copy of my god armor” was the one he fell back on the most), but the truth he never dared to say was that he kept summoning Jigsaw just so he could drive a sword into its chest.

A small part of him knew this wasn’t going to work. With each death, shadows got stronger: not just in physical strength, but in intelligence and power. Each death meant the next time Jigsaw was summoned it was easier for it to overpower him. And, with the only threats to the shadows being their summoners and other shadows, it was getting easier for Jigsaw to just nick his stuff, chuck him in a box, and leave him for dead.

And yet, here he was, in the depths of the shadow temple, standing in front of the summoning altar, and shaking with rage.

As he had done for the entire trip here, Grian checked around to make sure no other hermits were nearby. Not that it would do him much good-- everyone would be able to see the chat ping alerting everyone that a shadow had been summoned. At least if no one was in the temple with him, he didn’t run the risk of Jigsaw using them as a prop in its schemes… and he didn’t risk having to field questions about why he looked like he was about to snap. Which he was.

He’d timed everything perfectly. Joe had just left after another bout of training with his shadow, Wels’s shadow was still summoned so there was no risk of the Vex shadows dragging the unfortunate knight here, Keralis had enough diamonds to satisfy his gambling addiction for now… No one else was going to be using the temple for a while. Well, unless Apex did something stupid and got itself killed, which was getting worryingly more common and worryingly more… _ worrying _ seeing as Biffa wasn’t the one behind it.

Maybe this was a bad idea. Grian hesitated, his hand hovering inches away from the armor stand. A lot more hermits had been summoning their shadows, and a lot of shadows had been getting pretty strong. It was hard to picture what life had been like before the addition of the mob, and yet even though they were a part of everyday life they were still _ dangerous _. Especially if killed enough times to start developing fun new abilities, like Killjoy. What if that happened with Jigsaw? What if it turned out he was still playing right into his shadow’s hands, and Jigsaw was using him like Killjoy was using Joe? What if this death, or the one before, was enough for Jigsaw to develop some awful new power it could use to make his life a living hell?

...but, also, Grian just really, _ really _ wanted to stab him.

Not giving himself time to have second thoughts again, Grian tapped the armor stand and took a step back as the scene played out like it had all the times before: the stand vanishing, the shadows cast by the lights around him warping and changing, then his own shadow stretching out and up off the floor. Grian got into a fighting stance as soon as Jigsaw got its head out; he bared his teeth, jaw clenched, as his dark duplicate stood up and stretched like it’d just been woken up from a nap.

“**Oh, hello Grian~!**” The cheerful smile that was so at home on Grian’s face looked horrible on his shadow’s. “**Back so soon? That’s a surprise-- I thought you would’ve learned your lesson by now!**” Ignoring the rage boiling off of its summoner, Jigsaw crossed its arms behind its back and looked around. “**You’re reaaaally going to fight me one-on-one? ** ** _Really_ ** **? But don’t you remember what happened ** ** _last_ ** ** time?**” It rolled its head back and looked at him with half-lidded eyes. “**Or do you wanna go back in the box that badly?**”

“Shove it!” Grian snapped. Jigsaw sidestepped his swing like it was no big deal.

“**Ooh, feeling feisty today~! I see, I see.**” The smile spread into a mocking grin. “**You’ll have to try harder than that, Grian!**” It hopped over the next slash and laughed, a horrible giggle that sounded far too much like Grian’s for his liking. “**Go on, keep trying! Maybe I’ll stand still~**” It posed, feet together, arms outstretched, like it had just succeeded with a 10-point landing.

He was getting his anger get the better of him, he knew that. That was what Jigsaw _ did _ to people-- it either broke them, or it enraged them. Anything that it could take and twist up into being part of its game. He needed to think clearly, needed to find a weak point in his shadow’s guard, because if his experience with Killjoy taught him anything it was that fighting like a Grian wasn’t going to get him anywhere.

But it was so, so hard to think with Jigsaw taunting him non-stop. “**Come on, Grian!** ” it whined. “**I’m getting ** ** _bored_****. Are you even ** ** _trying_****?**” It ducked down to avoid Grian’s next attack, then leaned back to let the backswing sail over its head.

“I thought you were going to stand still?!” Another miss. He was still the obstacle between Jigsaw and the door, but if he wasn’t careful his shadow would get bored of their little dance and leave him in the dust.

The laugh that had been affectionately described as a “gremlin giggle” when Grian did it was loaded with poison. “**I said ** ** _maybe_****!**” Another step back, another step to the side, another flawless dodge, another miss. Jigsaw’s smile was catlike in a way he hated. “**But if you want me to so bad, then…**” Jigsaw jumped back, landing dead center on the summoning platform and spreading his arms to make himself as much of a target as possible. “**Hit me, Grian! Go on! What’re you gonna do with that big sword, huh? Gonna hit me? Better make it hurt. Better kill me in one shot--**”

Grian screamed in fury as his sword cleaved into Jigsaw. The tiny part of his brain not blinded by frustration took note that this was too _ easy_, that his sword barely had any resistance as it slashed into his shadow, that there was no way he would be able to take out all of his health in one go, and yet… 

And yet there was no puff of smoke, no cloud of triangle particles dusting down onto the ground and dimming into nothingness, nothing like what happened every time he’d killed his shadow before. The golden seam bisecting his shadow glowed, the light spreading until all of Jigsaw was the same shimmering colour, and then, with an almost cartoonish “_pop!_”, the golden silhouette split into two like a cell dividing. Grian’s jaw dropped open as the light faded and two copies of his shadow stood in front of him with matching shit-eating grins. 

Oh, he had _ absolutely _messed up.

“**Thanks for the help, Grian!**” one of the Jigsaws chirped in that horrible upbeat tone.

“**Surprised?**” said the other, its grin growing wider. “**Aww, look at his face! Haha~** ” It nudged its clone with an elbow as it giggled. “**He never expected this, huh?**”

“**Never in a million years!**” Their laughter drilled into him. “**You should have been paying more attention, G~ I bet you’re wondering how long--**”

Grian didn’t go for a slash this time. His sword stabbed right through the chest of one of the Jigsaws; it stopped talking, horrified, as he drove the blade in up to the hilt and glared at it inches from its face. “Shut. ** _Up._**” This time, when he yanked the sword out, it did nothing but give him a horrified look before exploding into smoke and particles.

Okay. Good. It could still die. Grian panted, a smile working its way onto his face. Looked like Jigsaw only split if cut apart… Inconvenient, but he could manage. He’d just have to be more careful, maybe use his trident more rather than relying on his sword, but he was going to have to get used to changing up his fighting style anyway if he kept killing his shadow like this…

Wait. Where’d the other one go?

Grian turned around just in time to see Jigsaw bolt for the door. “Get back here--!” With a taunting laugh, his shadow dove into the floor and darted away; his strike did nothing but crack the floor as he slammed his sword down onto it.

“**Bye, Grian!**” his shadow’s voice echoed from down the hall, growing fainter as it escaped. “**Tell Mumbo I say hi~ I’m sure he’d ** ** _love_ ** ** to hear you brought me back!**”

“**_NO!_**” Grian screamed. He’d played right into Jigsaw’s hands, _ again _ . His sword clanged as he threw it at the far wall with all the force he could muster, then dropped down to his knees and screamed into his hands. Great! Fantastic! Amazing! Outstanding! Now his shadow was on the loose, _ and _ could clone itself! That’s the best news he’s had all week! Except, no wait, no it isn’t, because that is _ the worst news he’s ever received. _

What was he going to do now? Jigsaw was surely making a beeline to the Nether portal and was going to be halfway across the server before he was able to even try and catch up. If only he’d been better prepared, if only he’d thought to try and trap his shadow here, if only he could just summon it back so he could give it the beatdown it deserved…

Grian got a stupid idea.

As the hermits made more and more use of it, the shadow temple had collected an assortment of various items outside the door leading to the summoning altar itself. Things like beds, ender chests, crafting tables… and a chest full of the items needed to summon a shadow on command. Grian’s eyes darted from the chest, to the crafting table, to the altar, and back again as a plan started to form together. _ What if he resummoned his shadow? _ As far as Grian was aware, none of the hermits had tried doing so while a shadow was already out and about on the Overworld. There was still a lot they didn’t know about the mob, after all. So… what would happen? What if he was able to teleport Jigsaw back to him? He’d like to see his shadow try to run and hide then!

His laughter took on a bit of a maniacal tone as he re-assembled the dark armor stand and placed it down. “‘_Aww, look at his face!_’“ he said in his best Jigsaw impression, which was really just… doing an impression of himself. “‘_He never expected this, huh?_’ I can’t _ wait _ to see the look on its dumb face…” Jittering with excitement, Grian summoned his shadow.

What he’d expected to happen was for it to be like he’d summoned his shadow all over again. Grian had expected Jigsaw to get yanked up out of his shadow like normal, had expected to laugh at it as it demanded an explanation, and had expected to then finally get to take out the rest of its health and walk away with loot and accomplishment. That’s what made the most _ sense _to Grian. Why would anything else happen? That would be silly.

That wasn’t what happened.

Grian looked down at his shadow and frowned. The armor stand had vanished, but… nothing had happened. It wasn’t like when he’d gotten possessed by Killjoy, either, when his shadow had outright vanished as the shadow mob took control. Normally there would be an error message if something didn’t work, right? But he was just… standing here, feeling stupid, while meanwhile his shadow was probably thousands of blocks away. Frustrated, Grian picked up his sword and made to leave.

A chill went down his spine as he passed back over the summoning altar on his way to the door. Grian found himself rooted in place; he looked around, alarmed, but that was the most he could do. His body just wasn’t responding to him anymore. Fear hammered in his chest; Grian tried to run, to do _ anything_, but was completely powerless. Unable to do anything else, Grian looked down.

A pair of yellow eyes looked back up at him.

His shadow distorted and a pair of arms shot out to grab him by the legs. Grian screamed as Jigsaw clawed his way out, eyes burning with fury, but-- no, _ this wasn’t right_. Jigsaw was pulling himself up, but… but Grian was being pulled _ down_. Empty cold clung to him as Jigsaw dragged him under, deeper into the dark, and Grian couldn’t do anything but feebly struggle as the world around him grew more indistinct, colour draining out of his surroundings and leaving nothing but darkness, until finally everything faded into nothing as he fell out of the Overworld.

  
*** Grian has made the advancement ** _**[Into The Abyss]**_


	2. exploration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: i wrote all of c&c over the course of about 2 days and am now just splitting it up into chunks so its easier to post. this might be one of the only times i do this. someone please stop me.
> 
> guess who's here? mumbo & iskall (& murmur) are here! oh yeah also the whole "grian gets trapped in another dimension" thing. but hey, architechs!  
(admin gets mentioned, too! he's xisuma's shadow. i love him. id die for him.)
> 
> mine-sara-sp drew an AMAZING cover for this story, which you can see here!!  
https://mine-sara-sp.tumblr.com/post/188798518928/

Grian was falling.

There was no wind whistling in his ears like when he did a high-speed elytra dive, no rush of adrenaline telling him to push it, to wait ‘til the last second to fire his rocket and skid just above the ground while Ren or whoever else decided to challenge him hit it at terminal velocity. There were no clouds up above him, no light, nothing but darkness surrounding him as he dropped into infinity. It reminded him of his trips to the End; it brought up memories of flying out into the farthest islands with Tango, with nothing to catch him if he fell.

Like he was doing now.

His mind spun with questions. _ What just happened? _ Somehow, Jigsaw had dragged him into… well, the Shadow Realm, he guessed. Wherever shadows went when they weren’t summoned to the Overworld. If this endless void was all there was, though, then… He actually felt a little bad for them. He’d be pretty grumpy too if he got yanked out of the endless void only to get stabbed for sweet loot and sent back.

Just when Grian was wondering if he was ever going to stop falling, ground rushed up to meet him. The collision knocked the wind out of him; he half-expected to be exploded into items and XP orbs on impact, and every part of his brain was telling him he should not have survived it, but… here he was. Laying on the ground in another dimension, disoriented and with no idea how he was going to get out of here.

The landscape around him was made of what looked like an unrefined version of the black stone that made up the construction of the shadow temples back on the Overworld-- reminiscent of obsidian, but with the texture of smooth stone as he ran his hand over it. He was surrounded as far as he could see by void, broken up only by massive rough black stone cliffs and mountains that stretched up to build height. He’d been lucky to land on one of many ledges sticking out of one of the taller cliffs; below him, outcroppings jutted out of the massive pillar-like formation in the vague approximation of stairs leading down deeper into the flat darkness. Grian shivered.

He craned his head back to look for where he’d fallen from and saw nothing but the shimmering patterns of the dark sky. There was no Grian-shaped hole he’d dropped out of, as hilarious as the mental image was to him, just… more darkness. Had he mentioned it was dark yet? At least his eyes were starting to adjust to the minimal light.

When staring into the abyss got him nothing, he settled for staring down at himself instead, the only splash of colour in this entire place that he could see. Everything else was just varying shades of black and grey. A thought occurred to him-- what if there were mobs here? He stuck out like a sore thumb. Would he be able to fight them off?

He needed to find shelter. He had plenty of food on him, but that alone didn’t mean he’d be able to survive in a strange, hostile dimension he didn’t understand. With nothing else to do, Grian drew his sword and journeyed deeper into the dark.

It wasn’t long before he was completely, utterly lost.

Maybe going down had been the wrong idea, but it hadn’t looked like going up was going to do him any favours either. The further down he went, the darker it got-- he’d heard the phrase “darker than dark” before, and this place seemed to take it to heart. He’d tried to mark his path with torches, at first, but the instant he even held one in his hand the light would go out; after several tries, he’d given up and instead taken to mining out some of the stone every ten blocks or so to build tiny landmarks of “hey, I’ve been here”. Pale particles danced around in the air like fireflies; it wasn’t until Grian had ventured even further into the all-consuming darkness that they got bright enough and common enough for him to recognize them as the triangle particles the shadows constantly gave off. They kicked up off the ground with each step he took, blowing and twisting in an unseen wind; he watched as some of them stuck to his jumper like glitter, then twinkled and burnt out.

He’d been at this for a while now, and he’d seen no sight of there being any inhabitants except for him. That sounded wrong in his head-- there _ had _ to be mobs here, right? This was where the shadows were from, so why hadn’t he found any? He thought he’d seen glimpses of something out of the corner of his eye-- something gold, the feeling of eyes boring into his back-- but every time he’d turned to look he’d just seen more clouds of particles. It was starting to seriously creep him out, but it wasn’t like he was able to do anything about it.

He sat down under a rocky overhang and sighed, feeling the cold atmosphere sink into him. The last message his communicator showed was an advancement notification; he’d tried sending several messages, including whispering Xisuma, but all of them had failed to deliver. Whatever this place was was wreaking havoc on his connection to the rest of Hermitcraft; hopefully it was a bug, rather than a feature, but either way it meant he was completely cut off from everyone.

“This is how I die,” he moaned. “Banished to the shadow realm for my idiocy.” He flopped down on his back. “I hope Mumbo builds me a nice gravestone. Puts an inspirational quote on it.” His voice echoed in the silence. “Who will take up the mantle of Poultry Man when I’m gone? Iskall? _ Someone _ needs to be dispensing egg-y vigilantism!” Still no response from the desolate world. Grian pulled his communicator back out as if it would have started working again in the few minutes since he’d last checked. It hadn’t, obviously. He was starting to get restless.

“...what if they never find me?” Grian asked in a small voice that sounded loud in his ears. The possibility was starting to feel very, very real. What if he died here but just respawned back up at the top, in an endless loop forever like Bdubs dropping from the sky? What if no one ever found out what happened to him other than a mysterious advancement notification? What if Jigsaw ran loose on the server forever, killing and torturing everyone it pleased until it got bored?

“**_What if they never find me?_**” a far too familiar voice mocked. Grian froze as something landed on the overhang and dangled down to stare at him: a highlighter-yellow glowing copy of himself with solid black eyes. Grian gasped as he sat up and fumbled for his sword; the mysterious mob gave the impression of rolling its eyes (or so he guessed, it wasn’t like he could tell) and dropped down onto the ground in front of him. Ignoring the sword pointed at it, the mob grabbed him and hauled him to his feet to snarl at him. “**You should’ve thought of that ** ** _before _ ** **you did something so… so ** ** _stupid_****!**”

Grian leaned back as far as he could with the mob holding him fast. Great, so this clone of him was mean, too. Just his luck. Except… He tilted his head a little. The mob had a pair of familiar triangular spiral markings on its cheeks, the same black as its eyes. The same markings he’d seen far too often, and the same markings that had been one of the factors behind a certain shadow settling on a certain nickname.

No way. He stared at the mob, incredulous. “_Jigsaw?_”

“**Aaaand we have a winner!**” Jigsaw let go of him and crossed its arms. “**Congratulations, Grian, here’s your prize: being trapped in the Shadowlands! Because ** ** _some~body _ ** **decided to spoil my fun just when it was about to get good…**”

Grian crossed his arms as well in a mirror of his… shadow? It felt weird calling it that. It looked more like living light, glowing in the dark like he sometimes joked about Keralis’s shadow doing. If he squinted, he could see pinpricks of lights off in the distance-- what he’d assumed to be more of those triangle particles were most likely far-away shadow echoes dotting the landscape, like Endermen in the End. “It was worth it,” he snapped. “At least you’re here too, instead of running off and hurting my friends…”

Jigsaw exploded into raucous laughter. Grian took a step back as his shadow doubled over, clutching its stomach; it wiped at its face once its laughter subsided, although a malicious giggle still worked its way into its voice. “**Oh, Grian, Grian, ** ** _Grian_****… You really have no idea at all, don’t you?**” It lifted its head up, flashing black teeth at him in a fierce grin. “**This isn’t really ** ** _me_****, Grian! This is just what gets ** ** _left behind_****. You can’t cast a shadow without a bright light, you know~!**” Its horrible laughter rang in his ears, echoing off the cliffs and into the endless void. “**And guess what? As long as you’re here, you can’t do anything to stop me! Even your stupid ** ** _sword_ ** ** is about as good as a butter knife.**”

“Yeah?” Grian snapped. “Well-- well you look like _ butter _, so--!” Jigsaw gave him an unimpressed look as his sword swing swiped right through it, like he’d taken a swing at someone else’s shadow instead.

“**You really need to work on your one-liners,**” Jigsaw grumbled. “**Ah, but it’s such a ** ** _shame_ ** ** that you won’t be there to see your friends ** ** _beg_ ** ** once I’m through with them…~ Oh well! I’ll just have to tell you about it. Give you the play-by-play.**” Another useless slash that did absolutely nothing passed through the shadow, and it gave an exaggerated yawn. “**Well, bye-bye, Grian! Have fun being lost in the dark~**”

“Wait!” Grian grabbed Jigsaw by the sleeve. “How-- how do I get back?!”

His shadow lolled its head back over its shoulder to look at him with that awful catlike smile that made Grian seethe with rage. “**You don’t!**” it chirped. “**Didn’t you hear me earlier?** **_You’re trapped_****! Hope you enjoy the view, because it’s the last thing you’ll ever see.**” It flashed him a wicked grin, then vanished into a cloud of triangle particles before Grian could reply. He stood there, arm still outstretched from where he’d been holding his shadow, and stared at the drifting particles in despair.

-

Mumbo frowned down at his communicator. “Grian has made the advancement… ‘Into The Abyss’?” he read aloud. Iskall nodded from where he was looking at his own device; Murmur made an unhappy noise, and the diamond-eyed Architech held it out so the shadow could see the message as well. Chat was already starting to flood with questions from the other hermits; no one had seen Grian, nor had anyone heard of any new advancements that had been added in the latest patch. Enter the other two members of Architech, who were equally confused and worried about the radio silence from their missing friend.

“No, but, look at that--” Mumbo scrolled up in chat and jabbed a finger at an alert from a few minutes before the mysterious message. “ ‘Grian’s shadow has been summoned’-- that means he summoned Jigsaw again.” He winced as he felt rather than heard a rumble of static; the glittering particles around his shadow jittered about like leaves in a storm until he placed a hand on its back and Murmur eased off with an apologetic look. "I'm not happy about it either," he admitted. "What's he _ doing_?"

Iskall shrugged. "Whatever he did, it got him an advancement." He tapped the green text; a tooltip popped up, and he frowned as he read it. " 'Reach the Shadowlands'," he read. "Murmur? What's the Shadowlands?" It started signing rapidly in response; Iskall waited as its summoner tried to keep up.

"He says it's where the shadows are _ from_," Mumbo translated. "It's another dimension…" The three exchanged glances. "You get there by-- I'm sorry, _ what_?"

Murmur repeated the gestures, only a few of which Iskall recognized. The Architechs had been learning ASL with varying levels of success; Murmur's inability to talk made it a necessity, but Iskall only knew the basics and military sign thanks to the annoyance that was his own shadow. Killshot could talk, he was pretty sure-- but it preferred to view conversations with Iskall as "understand me or die". Mumbo, meanwhile, was around his shadow 24/7, so learning how to communicate was vital.

"You… use your shadow… as a portal?" Mumbo struggled. Murmur gave him a thumbs up. "_ Why_? I mean-- why would you go there?"

"New dungeons?" Iskall suggested. "Maybe it's like why we go Endbusting-- you know, raiding dangerous dimensions for loot." He adjusted the straps of his elytra and checked his communicator again before putting it away. "We should go to the shadow temple-- make sure it's all clear when he gets back. It would _ suck _ if he came back with all this cool stuff and then got jumped."

Mumbo and Murmur both nodded in agreement. “Sounds good,” Mumbo confirmed. “Just… watch your back, okay? I don’t like the thought of his shadow being on the loose…”

Despite the threat of Grian’s shadow looming over them, though, their trip to the shadow temple was rather uneventful. There were no traps, no ambushes, or really any sign of Jigsaw at all; Mumbo still moved cautiously, unwilling to let his guard down for even a second, but they got all the way to the entrance without any interruptions.

Somehow that made it worse. Was this a new form of psychological warfare? Was Jigsaw taking a page out of Killshot’s book and going into hiding until they’d even forgot it was summoned so it could spring, unexpected, and kidnap them or shove them into its newest trap before they had any time to react? What if this was all just part of its game-- disposing of Grian, then baiting out all the hermits so it could do whatever it wanted to them?

Iskall raised an arm and Mumbo walked into it. “Something’s wrong,” Iskall muttered. Mumbo squinted for any signs of redstone; in the low light, it would be easy for someone to hide pressure plates or tripwires, but try as he might he couldn't see anything. He told Iskall as much, and the bearded hermit shook his head. "No-- you can't see it? Look at the walls."

Confused, Mumbo did as instructed. There. Just barely visible was a pattern shifting over the walls and entryway; it stuck to the stone like a shiny film, although nothing happened when he poked at it. Behind him, Murmur tensed up and took a step back despite its altered instincts instructing it to stay as close to its summoner as possible. "It… it looks like its _ enchanted_?" He turned to Iskall, wondering if that could really be the case. Iskall shrugged.

"Looks that way. I'm not sure _ how_… you can't really enchant _ buildings_, right?" Mumbo returned the shrug. Iskall stuck one leg through the doorway, sword at the ready. Nothing. "...Huh." He took another step in, then another, and Mumbo followed behind so that Iskall wouldn't leave him in the dust.

Murmur hovered near the door anxiously as its summoner headed deeper into the temple. It had a bad feeling about this. None of this had felt right, not since the advancement notification, but the two hermits pressed on anyway. "**Wait--**" Murmur braced itself, then stepped over the threshold as well. A wave of static washed over it, causing it to falter, but… but it was inside now, completely fine if a bit rattled. The static effect was still there when it took a step back out of the structure, but it wasn't preventing it from leaving. Murmur hopped back-and-forth a couple of times, adjusting to the uncomfortable feeling of passing through the near-invisible barrier, then remembered _ oh, right, Mumbo _and ran down the hall after them.

"Grian?" Mumbo called out, uneasy, as they drew closer to the door to the summoning altar. The chest of materials was half-open, like someone had forgotten to close it in their hurry; there were no new signs placed, no books shoved in the chest, nothing Grian could've used to leave a message. It was like he'd just… vanished.

The door opened easily when Iskall tried it. The trio of would-be rescuers filed into the room and looked around; just like every room before now, it was empty. Grian hadn't even replaced the armor stand.

"**Boo!**"

Mumbo & Iskall screamed as a patch of darkness on the ground shot up into a three-dimensional figure. Grian's shadow cackled and hunched over, hands on its knees, before collecting itself and grinning at the group. "**Hi there! Did you miss me?**"

"**_No,_**" Murmur hissed. Jigsaw pouted.

"**Well, that's just**** _rude_****.**" It leaned against one of the pillars and made a show of checking its nails. "**Let me guess… you're here looking for Grian, aren'tcha?**" It tucked its hands away in its pockets and leered at them mischievously. "**I guess you haven't heard the news, then!**"

"News..?" Mumbo knew that, whatever Jigsaw's plan was, he was falling for it. His shadow stepped in front of him, bristling and shooting Jigsaw an intense glare; he leaned around Murmur to try and see, even as his shadow shuffled around to try and stay as a barrier between him and the dangerous entity taunting them. "What news?"

Jigsaw's grin was venomous. "**Grian's ** ** _gone_****! Never coming back! Fell out of the world, lost in the void, whatever you'd like to call it!**" It laughed at the look of horror on Mumbo's face. "**I gave him a one-way ticket to oblivion!**"

Iskall… didn't look impressed. "You're lying," he drawled. "We saw the advancement. Why would Mojang add a dimension you can't get back from?"

"**Ah-- Er--"** Jigsaw was taken aback. " **Well… because…**"

"And if Grian isn't here to stop you," the hitman continued, "_why are you still here?_"

"**B- Because--**" The flat black of Jigsaw's skin turned a bit darker as the shadow flushed with embarrassment. "**Because ** ** _shut up_ ** **, is why!**" It was now Iskall’s turn to look smug as the shadow scrambled for a better rebuttal. “**Maybe I don’t ** ** _wanna_****, huh? You ever think of that? Maybe-- Maybe--**”

It clicked. “You’re… _ stuck_?” Mumbo asked, incredulous. “Like-- like you’re _ trapped _ here?” The mysterious barrier came to mind immediately. Jigsaw’s angry seething was all the answer the Architechs needed.

Murmur turned around and got Mumbo’s attention. _ It’s so Grian can get back_, his shadow signed with a look of dawning realization. _ He can’t leave! _

“**_HEY!_ ** ” Jigsaw barked. “**Don’t turn your back on me! What’s-- what’s he saying? Murmur! ** ** _Hey!_ **” Murmur ignored it. Iskall muffled a snort of laughter; with the danger removed, Jigsaw was… more like just an annoying brat.

“He’s saying you can’t leave,” Mumbo translated, more for Iskall’s benefit than Jigsaw’s. “You _ are _ stuck!” He couldn’t help it-- he laughed. “We can just leave you here!”

“**_NO!_**” He’d let his guard down. Jigsaw launched at Mumbo and grabbed him by the suit lapels, eyes burning with fury. “**I am ** ** _not_ ** ** a joke! Stop it!**” Its deathgrip released suddenly as Murmur yanked it back by the jumper and tossed the rowdy shadow to the floor; it tried to get back up, but was stopped by Iskall pointing a sword at him. “**...you know that doesn’t ** ** _do_ ** ** anything, right?**”

“Yes,” Iskall admitted, “but it’ll feel good.”

Jigsaw sat cross-legged on the floor and crossed its arms, scowling. Iskall kept his sword leveled at it, while Murmur stepped back in front of Mumbo to act as a shield. After a few minutes of the stand-off, Jigsaw grinned and leaned back to look up at them. “**Besides,**” it teased, “**even if you ** ** _could_ ** ** kill me, you shouldn’t~ You kill me, you kill Grian’s only exit! So no asking Killshot for help this time~**”

Iskall’s eye widened and he took a step back. Jigsaw rested its head in its hands and smiled, pleased with itself. Mumbo tapped Iskall on the arm and the two and a half Architechs got into a group huddle to whisper at each other. “What are we going to do?” Mumbo asked, worried. “If he’s right, then… then Grian’s stuck. How do we get him out?”

_ We could leave him there, _ Murmur suggested as a mean joke. It wasn’t so much as Murmur hated Grian, just… highly disapproved of just about everything he did when it came to his shadow. Mumbo gave it a distraught look. “**Sorry,**” it said out loud with a sheepish expression. Back to signing: _ Jigsaw’s right about being Grian’s exit. Killing him is not going to work. _

Iskall listened as Mumbo translated, then smirked. “Hold on, boys, I’ve got an idea.” He clapped them both on the back and broke away from the huddle to turn and face Jigsaw again. “Sooo, Jigsaw…” The shadow perked up as it was addressed. “So if I’m understanding this right… Grian’s out of the picture for now, yes? There’s nothing stopping you from doing whatever you want to anyone on the server?”

“**Correct!**” Jigsaw beamed. “ **Why, are you volunteering?**”

“No, it’s just…” Iskall folded his arms behind his back and kicked at the floor. He tilted his head back to hide his smile as he continued. “Well, you can’t leave, though, right? At all?”

Jigsaw hesitated. “**...I don’t like where this is going.**”

Target locked. Iskall leaned down so he could look the living problem in the eyes. “Sooo… as long as Grian is in the Shadowlands, you’re _ stuck_. You can’t do _ anything_. _ Ever_. No more traps, no more pranks, no more kidnapping, no more chaos, no more fun, no more games…” Jigsaw stared up at him with dawning horror. “Sure, we can’t kill you, but… you know there’s other shadow temples on the server, right? We can just… y’know, board this one off. Seal it up. Leave you here.”

“**You ** ** _wouldn’t_****,**” Jigsaw gasped. “**You’re-- you’re not ** ** _that_ ** ** cruel!**”

Iskall smirked. “Wanna find out?” He straightened up and spun on one heel, then spread his arms to escort Mumbo and Murmur towards the door. “Let’s go tell Xisuma the good news, eh? Maybe Admin can find a way to get Grian back…”

“**W- Wait! No! Nononono-- ** ** _DON’T LEAVE ME HERE!_**”


	3. escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> major thanks as always to sara for all of the awesome ideas i got to play with!! like realtalk? i owe her my life. her ideas & feedback were crucial for this fic being as good as it is
> 
> guess what i suck at writing? combat! guess what this chapter has a good amount of? combat! how do play videogames.
> 
> the body horror warning kicks in for the ending scene, when the POV cuts back to the architechs & jigsaw. its... its something! jigsaw has a horrible time. after the things he does in fics other people've written on tumblr, though, id say he had it coming
> 
> check the notes at the bottom for things sara drew! \o/

Grian had encountered a problem.

Desperate for a way to prove Jigsaw wrong, he’d continued journeying even deeper into the abyss. The triangle particles were omnipresent now, swirling around him like little lights; his hair and jumper looked like it had been dusted with glitter, although now he was likely to walk into another cloud of particles before the previous ones would fade. He’d given up on trying to avoid them or shake them off. They’d burn out once he was back on the Overworld. He just… needed to get there first.

He’d caught sight of more of those highlighter-yellow versions of shadows lurking about, now that he knew what to look for. Once or twice he’d spotted what might have been False’s shadow-- what was its name, Fractal?-- but it vanished whenever he called out to it. Seemed like the hermit shadows didn’t have much interest in him while he was here… although he got the feeling that if he was False, or any other hermit with a corresponding shadow, that wouldn’t be the case.

What he had been encountering more and more, though, was… well, more shadows, but not like any of the ones he’d seen on the Overworld. They were tall, gangly things, the same vibrant yellow as the reverse versions of Jigsaw and Fractal, but with a body shape more like an Enderman-- easily towering over him, with spindly limbs and empty eyes, flaking off more of those omnipresent triangles. Grian did his best to ignore them. There was no mistaking that feeling of being watched, though, of feeling their stares lock onto him as he jumped from platform to platform in hopes of eventually finding the bottom.

Maybe they were what shadows looked like before they were summoned for the first time? They looked like vague templates more than anything else, bare of any identifying features save for a generic, warped silhouette that could easily be squished down into the shape of any player. It was hard to picture any of the shadows he knew as having once looked like this, though. Even the scarier shadows like Apex or Killjoy were still rather human, while these were… well, definitely mobs.

They were also, as Grian had just discovered, very hostile.

Grian fled as fast as he could along a jagged path. Behind him, a pair of unclaimed shadows he’d accidentally aggro’d were hunting him down; they copied his movements, not to the same level as Jigsaw’s mimicry but clearly taking note of what he was doing to use it to their advantage. He swatted one away with his sword once one clawed hand got too close for comfort; unlike his earlier attempts with Jigsaw, the blade cut into the glowing flesh and the shadow let out a static-y hiss of pain and reeled back, giving Grian the opening he needed to run and leave it in the dust. The other shadow was far more persistent, though. He needed a plan.

A massive structure loomed up ahead. Unlike everywhere else Grian had seen in this dimension so far, it looked more… was _ man-made _ the correct term when in a hostile dimension full of mobs? Whatever, it reminded him of a Nether fortress, down to being made of dark brick rather than the black stone the rest of the dimension preferred. Grian made a beeline for it. As he got closer, he was able to make out more details; it wasn’t a Nether fortress it reminded him of, on closer inspection, but rather… It was a shadow temple. Much like the one he’d been in back in the Overworld. Rather than being hidden away underground, though, it was a fully-formed structure that stood proud among the cliffs, and easily dwarfed the Overworld ones in size; Grian got the impression that it was more like the shadow temples the hermits had been using were just tiny chunks taken from this one.

Grian grinned. This was sure to be his ticket out of here. He just… had to survive getting there, first.

He spun around and jumped back to avoid the unclaimed shadow’s incoming attack, then parried its strike with his sword; undeterred, it backhanded him and knocked him down to the ground. Grian bit back a cry of pain and rolled to the side to avoid the clawed hand that slammed down where he’d been a moment before. His kick connected with its chest and sent it reeling long enough for him to get back to his feet, but it had learned from its companion to avoid his sword and dodged it with ease. Grian needed to think fast. He didn’t have enough blocks in his inventory to board off the entrance if he made a break for the temple, and he didn’t know if worse dangers would be waiting for him inside.

He had to be careful, though-- the path they were fighting on was getting narrower as they got closer to the temple, and the last thing Grian wanted to do was take a tumble into the void (for real, this time). An idea occurred to him and he almost laughed. “Hey!” he called out to the attacking shadow as he scooted closer to the edge. “Go on, try and hit me! Maybe I’ll stand still this time!” He didn’t know if the shadow was even able to understand him, but he got the desired result anyway: it charged. Grian jumped to the side, then hit it as hard as he could with the flat edge of his sword; the shadow screeched as it was knocked off the path and tumbled down out of sight.

Okay, that was pretty cool, he had to admit. Grian took a breather, then continued to the temple. If he was lucky, it would be like the shadow temples on the Overworld: mostly abandoned, with the primary danger being the shadow summoned at the end. Surely the main challenge was just getting down this far at all, right? He could handle this.

Ten minutes later, Grian was forced to acknowledge that he could _ not _ handle this.

The temple was absolutely _ infested _ with shadow mobs. Grian had done his best to fight them off, up until he got knocked down to just a couple hearts and the best option changed to “booking it”; even then, the temple was like a giant maze, with identical rooms that made him feel like he was going in circles, sudden drops he had to be wary of, and plenty of places for him to get ambushed around corners. And to top it off, every time Grian thought he was safe he ran into a trap. None of them were instant-kill, that he was thankful for, but he was getting low on food and low on health. It was like the difficulty had been ramped up as far as it could go, and honestly it was wearing him down.

After far too many close calls, Grian stumbled through the final doorway and collapsed face-down on the floor. Throughout that entire ordeal, he hadn’t found _ anything _ that looked like he could use it to get back home. No summoning altars, no mysterious portals, not even any sign of his own shadow to taunt him. It was starting to sink in that he was well and truly trapped. Grian whined into the floor miserably. “What’s next?” he complained. “Do I at least get any cool loot out of this..?”

No response. Not even any taunting remarks from Jigsaw, wherever he was. Grian waited for his health to regen a little bit more, then got to his feet and looked around. This room looked to be at the dead center of the entire dungeon: a massive stone brick chamber lit with the only light sources Grian had seen in this place since he’d got here that nearly blinded him after spending so long in the dark. He rubbed his eyes and groaned. Not even a treasure chest? Lame.

The patches of light wavered. Grian opened his eyes again in time to see more of the unclaimed shadows spawn out of them in an echo of how the hermits’ shadows were summoned on the Overworld; he took a step back, sword at the ready, as he prepared to fight. Okay, a gauntlet of enemies, that… that wasn’t _ great_, but he could manage, right?

Except… Except one of the unclaimed shadows stepped forward. The remaining darkness not blotted out by the light seemed to wrap around it, forming armor; it raised one arm as the darkness twisted around its arm and extended out into a long pole. The end flashed, and a massive glowing gold blade formed to assemble a large scythe that it leveled at him.

Grian swallowed. Okay. That was cool, but also _ very terrifying_. He chuckled. “I’m in danger.”

The leader-- he assumed it was the leader, anyway, it was the one with the cool armor and the scythe with a blade about as big as his entire body-- charged. Grian just barely dodged being cut in half; the scythe dug into the stone like it was nothing, and the shadow took a moment to pull it back out before rounding on him again. Surrounded on all sides by mobs that wanted him dead, Grian was forced to focus on dodging rather than attacking; the various unclaimed shadows weren’t anywhere near as strong as the hermit shadows, but they still _ hurt _ and the last thing Grian wanted was to see what that scythe did to him.

Speaking of. The shadow swung the scythe in a wide arc; Grian threw himself to the floor to dodge it, then covered his ears as an unholy static screeching rang throughout the room. He risked a glance behind him and saw that the scythe had absolutely _ wrecked _ some of the boss’s minions; either it was especially good at cutting shadows up, or it was just that strong. He hoped it was the former, but wasn’t willing to risk the latter.

Still, it gave him an idea. He couldn’t take on all of these shadows at once, so why not have them take each other out? Grian switched strategies. He smacked any shadows that got too close to him with his sword, enraging them, then kited them over to the boss shadow; at the last second, he dodged and let it do the majority of the work for him. That being said, though, it wasn’t going to work forever. The shadows were catching on, and even though the numbers were thinning it was at the cost of the remaining shadows being even harder to fight off.

Grian decided he really, really needed that scythe.

After adapting to his more cowardly tactics, the shadows weren’t prepared for an all-out attack. Grian cleaved through the ones still standing that had been worn down by his earlier prodding, then focused on the main event. Okay, he could do this! They weren’t as smart as the shadows he was familiar with-- they didn’t know how to adapt to sudden changes like that. He just needed to keep switching it up, keep them on their toes, and then he’d be golden.

A crack appeared on the leader’s face. As Grian watched, eyes widening in horror, the crack spread into a jagged gash that opened up into a horrific mouth; the shadow screamed at him, overloading his senses, and then the scythe came down. Pain exploded through him as it cut into his shoulder; Grian shut his eyes tight and wrenched himself away from the weapon, then stabbed at the exposed bit of yellow shining through the shadow’s armor. It staggered back, only for Grian to close the distance again and attack, attack, attack, trying to not think about his health draining away, trying to not think about how another hit like that would be the end of him--

\--and then, with a burst of static and a whirlwind of triangles, the shadow exploded.

The scythe and helmet clattered to the ground at Grian’s feet.

Grian sat down hard. All of his exhaustion caught up to him, magnified by the pain in his shoulder. He dug through his inventory for his last golden carrot and bit into it, hoping he’d heal enough for him to at least be able to get out of here without getting slapped to death by whatever shadows were still waiting for him outside; he was getting pretty tired of near-death experiences, and honestly he just wanted to go home already.

In a matter of moments, his wound knitted up to where the only reminder that he’d gotten it was a damaged jumper and a dull pain that flared if he moved his shoulder too fast. Grian wanted nothing more than to just lay down and go to sleep, but unfortunately that wasn’t much of an option. Instead, he got himself to stand up and went to go look at whatever he’d gotten as a reward for that harrowing fight.

The scythe caught his attention immediately. Grian picked it up and examined it, curious; it had about the same damage as his diamond sword, but if he had to guess the weapon probably came with the Sweeping Edge enchantment built in. It sounded rather likely after seeing it in action. He twirled it in his hands experimentally and couldn’t help a goofy grin from appearing on his face. He had a _ scythe _! That’s pretty dang cool! He squinted at the tooltip in his inventory as he passed it from hand to hand. It had a couple of unique properties tied to it; going off the names, it looked like he wouldn’t be able to clone it by killing Jigsaw, and he was right about it messing up shadows real good. Maybe it would even be able to do chip damage if he got attacked by someone else’s shadow? He’d have to test that theory next time Apex tried hunting him down. Same for the helmet, although instead of doing more damage it instead reduced damage taken from shadows.

Feeling accomplished, Grian put the helmet away in his inventory and went back to twirling the scythe. The glowing trail left behind by the blade was rather pretty, and he was easily amused; at least if he ran out of torches while caving, he could always pull this out to have a light source. The idea made him laugh, which kept going as he finally released all the tension that had been built up in him ever since he’d been dumped in this dimension; Grian had to lean on the scythe for support until his giggles subsided and he was faced, once again, with the problem of having no idea how he was gonna get home.

“**Good job!**” Oh, great. He knew that voice. Grian turned around to see Jigsaw standing in the doorway. His shadow clapped, smirking. “**Would you look at that, somehow Grian hasn’t gotten himself killed~ Pretty impressive!**”

“Nice to see you too, Jigsaw,” Grian replied with as much frustrated sarcasm he could fit into six words. “What, are you here to mock me some more?”

Jigsaw gave him an unimpressed look. “**Yes and no. You see, Grian, I’ve run into a bit of a problem…**” Grian got back on guard as his shadow approached with a neutral expression. Jigsaw scuffed at the floor with one foot, kicking up triangle particles like clouds of dust, then closed its eyes. Grian hesitated, waiting for his shadow to continue.

“Uh--”

Jigsaw launched at him, closing the rest of the distance and slamming Grian into the wall. He cried out as his injured shoulder jarred from the impact; Jigsaw grabbed him by the jumper and shook him like a doll, ignoring its summoner’s pain. “**I’m ** ** _BORED!_**” Jigsaw wailed. “**I’m bored and your friends are stupid and mean! They were gonna just leave me there, can you believe that?! It’s ** ** _awful_****!**”

“Leave you _ where_?” Grian yelped as Jigsaw dropped him. “I-- What? Did I miss something?” His shadow didn’t respond immediately. Grian’s newfound scythe had clattered to the floor from Jigsaw’s assault; it picked it up and scowled at it in obvious distaste, like it’d just eaten something foul, then chucked it down at his feet.

“**I’m ** ** _useless_ ** ** without you,**” Jigsaw confessed. “**I can’t do anything! It sucks! I can’t even leave the stupid temple! Nobody wants to play with me, and I can’t even ** ** _make_ ** ** them because they can just walk away! ** ** _I hate it_****!**” Grian couldn’t help but look surprised at his shadow’s sudden change of tune. Apparently, his friends back on the Overworld had found the one thing to make Jigsaw crack.

“**So here’s the deal,**” his shadow said, scowling at him. “**_Just this once_****, I’ll let you go home. You can go back to the Overworld, and do stupid Grian things, whatever!**” Its black eyes flashed dangerously. “**But if you ** ** _EVER_ ** ** pull that trick again, it’s not gonna be that easy! Got it?**”

Grian couldn’t really take its threat too seriously when it was having a tantrum in front of him. “Got it,” he said. “No more… uh, whatever this is.” He rubbed his shoulder. After that absolute trial, it wasn’t like he was thrilled about the prospect of doing this again anyway.

Keeping his eyes on Jigsaw in case his shadow pulled any sudden moves, Grian stooped down and retrieved his scythe. His shadow watched him with an expression indicating it wasn’t looking forward to whatever this entailed. “So, uh… How do I get back?”

“**Easy.**” Jigsaw stepped back and spread its arms in that same _ come and get me, I’m a target _ gesture it had done back in the Overworld. “**Just, uh… do what feels ** ** _natural_****.**” It scrunched up its face, unhappy, and closed its eyes as it braced itself.

Grian gave it a confused look as he fidgeted with the scythe. “What?”

“**Come on!**” Jigsaw barked. “**Before I change my mind! Hit me, Grian! Go on! Better make it hurt--**”

Grian brought the scythe down.

It tore through Jigsaw like paper. His shadow ripped apart; for a moment Jigsaw just stood there with a clean line of bright light running through it, then with a bright flash it exploded like a golden supernova. Grian shielded his eyes, afterimages flickering when he blinked. Great, now he was blind. As if his day couldn’t get any worse. Particles surrounded him like he was trapped in a snowglobe; as Grian watched, they started to drift into the shining light as it expanded to swallow the room; he turned and tried to run on instinct, but felt his feet lose traction as the portal dragged him in.

He tightened his grip on his scythe and braced himself as he was pulled through, the darkness of the Shadowlands around him blasting apart into golden light--

-

“**Fine,**” Jigsaw grumbled. “**I’ll bring him back. Just-- Just don’t leave me here!**”

Iskall held his hand out for a high-five. Mumbo didn’t leave him hanging. Murmur held up its hand as well, and after a moment the other two Architechs high-fived it as well. Jigsaw seethed in barely-contained rage from where it stood, hands pressed up against the shining barrier that was the only thing stopping it from following them out into the outside world.

“**But just you ** ** _wait_****,**” Jigsaw hissed. “**Once Grian’s back? Once this little barrier is gone? I will make your lives ** ** _hell_****. I will make you regret ** ** _ever_ ** ** trying to abandon me! Do you hear me?! I’ll chase you and haunt you and torment you until you’re crying and begging--**”

Jigsaw made a weird noise.

As the trio watched, it hunched over, leaning hard on the barrier; it made the noise again, sounding like it was hurt or maybe about to be sick, and dropped down to its knees. “Uh--” Mumbo backed up. “Is-- Is everything okay? Hello? …Jigsaw?”

Anything Jigsaw said in reply was cut off by more of those pained noises. Mumbo and Iskall looked at each other in confusion; was it possible for shadows to get ill? The shining enchantment-like effect coating the temple flickered and faded, but Jigsaw was in no state to try and run. Murmur stood rooted to the spot as Jigsaw struggled, tried to get back up, and dropped back down to its knees as pain shot through it.

Jigsaw’s back cracked. A thin glowing golden line broke open, then another, like fractured glass; beams of light shone through, bright as the sun, as Jigsaw started screaming in pain. A familiar red-wearing arm burst out in a shower of triangles, followed shortly by Grian’s head; the hermit scrabbled for any leverage as he quite literally clawed his way out of Jigsaw. Both shadow and summoner screamed in unison, which was quickly echoed by their horrified audience; unable to look away, the Architechs were forced to watch as Grian hauled himself up and out of Jigsaw like something out of a horror movie.

As soon as he was free, the hermit collapsed into a disjointed heap on the floor. Jigsaw whined in agony; the horrible wound on its back from Grian’s escape mended itself, piece by piece, as the injured shadow sank down into the floor of the temple and vanished into the darkness. Normally, Jigsaw making a break for it would be a cause for concern, but right now everyone was more focused on their friend who had just experienced the worst version of dimensional travel possible.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Mumbo moaned. Murmur made a noise in agreement and disappeared into its summoner’s shadow. Iskall tried to say something, failed, and instead just stood there with his jaw hanging open.

“That,” Grian wheezed, “was _ awful_.” After a few tries, he managed to get to his feet and leaned on the wall of the temple; after catching his breath, he looked over his shoulder to see the rest of the Architechs staring at him. Unaware of the show they’d just had front-row seats to, Grian glanced down at the scythe in his hand and then looked back to his friends. “Uh… Are you guys okay?”

“I’ve been better,” Mumbo admitted. “What about you?! The whole server’s been looking for you! What happened?!”

Grian shook his head. “I’ll… I’ll tell you later. I just want to go home now, thanks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sara is my hero and did a LOT of awesome sketches!! you can see them all here:  
https://mine-sara-sp.tumblr.com/post/188809845673/


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